South Tyneside primary school praised for their involvement in Primary Engineer Leader's Award

For the last five years, Harton Primary School pupils have participated in the Primary Engineer Leader’s Award, a competition open to children aged 3 - 19. They are posed with the question, ‘If you were an engineer, what would you do?’

The competition gives them the opportunity to consider different problems faced in the local and wider community, including environmental issues, different health conditions and making everyday life more manageable.

After identifying their problem, the children then consider solutions. After drafting and editing ideas, the children select their best design to send in the form of a detailed labelled diagram along with a detailed letter explaining how their invention works and who it would benefit.

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During the process of selecting a problem and designing a solution, the children have engaged with different engineers to learn about their career journey.

Organisations that the children have engaged with, in person or virtually, include Nexus, BWC Performance, RWE, Sage, NHS, Soil Machine Dynamics and Northumbria Water.

Chris Lakin, a chemical engineer from BWC Performance who has visited the school for the past three years, said: “It’s a privilege sharing my experience of working in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) career with the children at Harton Primary School.

"The children always show such creativity when asked about what engineers could invent next. The Leaders Award is an ideal opportunity to get the children excited and interested in careers related to STEM.”

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At the end of the award, children receive certificates for their participation, receiving pass, merit or distinction grade after their ideas have been read by a panel of engineers. Any shortlisted entries for each year group for each region are then sent to judging panels to select two overall winners in each age group and nominate any highly commended entries.

This year, over 30 Harton Primary pupils from years four to six received distinction status and were shortlisted for the final round of judging.

Harton Primary have also celebrated winners and highly commended nominations for the Leaders Award over the last few years. Bonnie was the Year 4 winner in 2023 for the north east of England for her invention,

The I-guide, which would use vibrations and sensors to allow a person with visual impairments to see. This follows the 2022 Year 4 winners for the North East of England, Asmin and Oliver.

Asmin designed the ‘Glass Eye’ which would support people who were blind while Oliver designed the ‘Litter Drain 3000’ to help solve the issue of littering entering the environment.

Amelie also received highly commended in 2022 for her invention, The Manoeuvring Mimic. This was a robot which would allow people working in dangerous environments such as war zones or areas of natural disasters to carry out their jobs from a safe location, with a robot completing the tasks.

In 2020, Noah became the first child at Harton Primary to win the Primary Engineer Leaders Award when he was in Year 3 after he designed a rain purification system to turn rain into clean drinking water.

Headteacher, Mrs Ratcliffe, said: “The children are so keen to take part in the Leaders Award, and the ideas that they come up with are astounding! It’s a great way to highlight different careers in the field of engineering to the children.

"There are lots of opportunities for discussion and the children have the chance to explore creative ways to solve a problem which is meaningful to them.”